gistfile1.txt

% while /bin/true; do iostat -x sdb; sleep 1; done
Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (host.com)    09/19/2011      _x86_64_        (4 CPU)

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
          19.06    0.00    5.66    4.34    0.00   70.94

Device:         rrqm/s   wrqm/s     r/s     w/s   rsec/s   wsec/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await  svctm  %util
sdb               0.02   352.57   11.73  905.94   290.62 10068.03    11.29     1.42    1.54   0.21  19.46

Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (host.com)    09/19/2011      _x86_64_        (4 CPU)

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
          19.06    0.00    5.66    4.34    0.00   70.94

Device:         rrqm/s   wrqm/s     r/s     w/s   rsec/s   wsec/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await  svctm  %util
sdb               0.02   352.57   11.73  905.94   290.62 10068.04    11.29     1.42    1.54   0.21  19.46

Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (host.com)    09/19/2011      _x86_64_        (4 CPU)

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
          19.06    0.00    5.66    4.34    0.00   70.94

Device:         rrqm/s   wrqm/s     r/s     w/s   rsec/s   wsec/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await  svctm  %util
sdb               0.02   352.57   11.73  905.94   290.66 10068.04    11.29     1.42    1.54   0.21  19.46

-------

% iostat -x sdb 1
Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (host.com)    09/19/2011      _x86_64_        (4 CPU)

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
          19.06    0.00    5.66    4.34    0.00   70.94

Device:         rrqm/s   wrqm/s     r/s     w/s   rsec/s   wsec/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await  svctm  %util
sdb               0.02   352.54   11.78  905.90   295.08 10067.52    11.29     1.42    1.55   0.21  19.47

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
          27.95    0.00   10.60   17.11    0.00   44.34

Device:         rrqm/s   wrqm/s     r/s     w/s   rsec/s   wsec/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await  svctm  %util
sdb               0.00     0.00 1398.00    0.00 125712.00     0.00    89.92     0.80    0.57   0.53  74.00

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
          25.55    0.00    8.76   15.57    0.00   50.12

Device:         rrqm/s   wrqm/s     r/s     w/s   rsec/s   wsec/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await  svctm  %util
sdb               0.00     0.00 1308.00    0.00 109128.00     0.00    83.43     0.89    0.68   0.60  79.00

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
          24.11    0.00    9.69    4.73    0.00   61.47

Device:         rrqm/s   wrqm/s     r/s     w/s   rsec/s   wsec/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await  svctm  %util
sdb               0.00     5.00  459.00  180.00 34344.00  1480.00    56.06     0.20    0.31   0.31  20.00

avg-cpu:  %user   %nice %system %iowait  %steal   %idle
          42.08    0.00   11.39   15.10    0.00   31.44

Device:         rrqm/s   wrqm/s     r/s     w/s   rsec/s   wsec/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz   await  svctm  %util
sdb               0.00     0.00 1332.00    0.00 134576.00     0.00   101.03     0.75    0.56   0.54  72.00